by Yuu Kamiya
In the corner of one end of this great city, in a borderland that could just barely be considered within the metropolitan area, there stood a slightly slanted, dilapidated apartment building. On the seventh floor of this building that practically screamed “haunted house”...
There was Naoto’s home.
“Ah~ah! It was a good day again today!” Naoto yelled as he ran up the stairs that might collapse any day now.
The lad with a small stature had a black school uniform on. The tag by his chest pocket indicated that he was a first-year student. He was wearing a pair of cheap, fluorescent-green headphones in an attempt to suppress his ruffled hair. His face had no particular features worth mentioning save one: his light-gray pupils, and even those were ruined by his eyes, whose deadness seemed like a manifestation of his twisted personality.
“Being cornered and extorted for money, forced to be a gofer, having a bucket of water dumped on me, and having my desk graffitied, all while being sniggered and chortled at! Gee, I wonder what else I need to do to unlock the ‘Complete Set of Bullying’ achievement! Haha!” Naoto laughed drily in abandonment.
—It had already been a few years since he’d realized what he had sown.
Naoto didn’t reflect on himself even after realizing that he was abnormal. If anything, he became bolder. He proclaimed his preferences, displaying his character fully. For some reason, a beautiful upperclassman girl confessed her love to him, but as she wasn’t equipped with even a single moving part, Naoto politely declined. Because of all that, he had ended up in his current situation. Even after humanity had begun living on top of a foundation of gears, bullying at schools continued on.
He was simply reaping what he had sown for lacking sociability. He understood this, but it wasn’t like knowing that made his wet uniform feel any less gross.
“Haah... My goodness. I’m hooome...”
He opened the door, whose paint was peeling off here and there, and entered his apartment. No one came to greet him.
Naoto lived alone.
His parents had died one after the other a few years back, and he didn’t have any siblings or relatives, either. The only things that had been left to Naoto were this home in what might as well have been an abandoned building—and the work tools of his parents, who had been third-rate clocksmiths.
He tossed his bag into his bedroom, then passed through the living room from the hallway, heading towards the back of the apartment. That’s where the workshop was.
A stack of odds and ends was by the entrance, machine tools used to shave parts into the right dimensions were hung along the wall, and an air purifier installed to absorb the dust was operating quietly on the ceiling. In the center of this dimly lit room was an operating table—rather, a workbench.
Lying on top of it was an automaton.
Her model type was East-Asian. Her figure was that of a young girl around the age of fourteen. Her darkened, glass-bead eyes gazed into the air above her lifelessly. Wires and springs protruded outward from open hatches all throughout her body.
“I’m hooome...” Naoto said to the broken girl.
She was an automaton that Naoto had made by mish-mashing various parts together from discarded machinery. In this era where the entire planet had been running on only gears for a long time now, it wasn’t so hard to recreate the human body using only gears as well.
Naoto had frequently found time between school and his part-time job to visit a dump where he diligently gathered gears and screws one by one. Then, using the machinery and seminar readers his parents had left behind, he’d finally been able to reproduce an automaton to this extent through trial and error. This thing, which had finally taken form, was his precious treasure.
“Nooow then, I guess I’ll take a shower to refresh myself, then continue working.” Naoto pumped himself up and turned on his heels.
He took off and tossed everything he was wearing aside from his headphones all over the place as he leisurely headed towards the bathroom.
●
Clonk. Naoto’s foot hit the side of the narrow tub.
“Ooooooooh——!!” Naoto let out a strange sound as he sat in the water.
Taking care not to get his magazine wet, he turned a page of the newest issue of Automata Fan.
“Karasawa Heavy Industries’ mechanical legs look so smart! Whaaah?! What’s up with the architecture of this Double Gear? It’s absolutely stunning! Does God run Murakami Industries?!”
What Naoto was intensely reading was a monthly trade magazine for automata enthusiasts. It was an esoteric publication for diehards that explained the industry’s newest technologies in detail.
For Naoto, it was his supreme treasure that he read with love.
“Well, Kaiyodo has the best molding technology, as expected. In terms of overall price performance, Nosain isn’t bad either. Mm-hm, mm-hm... For springs, Damase’s rotaries are...” Just then, Naoto, who had been cheerily flipping through the pages, suddenly stopped his hand.
What he saw was a feature page on springs for automata. Products ranging from now-outdated masterpieces of the past to the latest parts for military use were compared based on price and performance.
Upon seeing the price for a secondhand of the oldest part listed, Naoto sighed, then scratched his head violently.
“Getting a spring is the problem after all. That’s the one thing that I’ll never find in a dump.”
The generator gear of automata springs for automata used gravity to churn out energy just by existing. When disposing of a spring, a person was required by law to deliver it to a dedicated facility. As such, unlike other parts, one wouldn’t find any of them lying around in garbage dumps.
“...It’s not like I have the money to actually buy one, either...”
It had taken him a year to scrape together these parts from all over. After that, it had taken him another two years to form the body by cobbling the parts together after repeated, countless failures. He had invested so much time into making an automaton, and now he was at a dead end.
The problem wasn’t just that he couldn’t acquire a spring, but also Naoto himself. Despite being such machine maniac that he sometimes forgot to eat and sleep, his technical skills were limited.
—Ah, you’re well informed for an amateur. Your fingers are nimble, too. Your intuition is decent as well.
But that was all.
It would be another story if he had simply bought and assembled standard parts, but Naoto had neither the knowledge nor the technical skills to recreate an automaton from broken pieces.
Although he studied his parents’ used readers, there was only so much an amateur could learn about the immense world of clocksmithing through self-study. He didn’t have the money to attend a clock-engineering school, either.
Naoto didn’t really know whether the cobble-work body would really move. After all, he had never been able to run a movement test as the body had no source of power.
Probably, presumably, maybe it’ll move, he thought.
That’s where he was.
“...Well, it’s not like money will come raining down if I grumble.” Naoto sighed as he turned his eyes back down toward the magazine.
—That was when...
Through his headphones, Naoto’s ears picked up a sound he wasn’t used to hearing. He spontaneously turned his face upward. Naturally, the ceiling was there, and he couldn’t see anything past it.
But he could definitely hear it. Something cutting through the wind far above in the sky. That something wasn’t an airplane, and it was approaching where he was dreadfully fast.
Babooooooooooooooom!
A thunderous roar loud enough to blow someone unconscious pierced Naoto’s ears.
The bathroom—rather, the building itself jolted vertically as if the ground had thrust it upwards, causing Naoto to inadvertently drop his magazine into the bathwater—In the blink of an eye, the ink blurred and the page muddled into a mosaic.
“Gghh
waaaaaaah?! I haven’t finished readi—That isn’t important right now! What the heck was that?!” After a momentary escape from reality, Naoto rushed out of the bathtub in a panic.
The thunderous roar and impact that had suddenly assaulted the building had a shock as powerful as a direct hit from a bomb or a wrecking ball, or if neither of those, then—
“A meteorite...? No, that’s ridiculous!”
As he muttered, Naoto rushed out of the bathroom with just a towel wrapped around him. Just what had happened? For now, he just wanted to make sure that the workshop and the automaton were unharmed.
“Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaashiwsedrftgyfujkolp——?!” He let out a scream that failed to form words.
At the end of the hallway, the living room, which also served as the dining area, was completely destroyed. The ceiling had completely fallen out, while debris and fine particles filled every inch of the room.
“Wh, What... How could this be...?!” Naoto slumped onto his knees on the spot as he cried and yelled, heartbroken. “What! What’s this supposed to be?! Just what have I done to deserve this?!”
It was like he couldn’t comprehend the sight before him.
I was simply enjoying my time reading my treasured magazine when a meteorite fell and destroyed my home. I, I don’t expect you to understand what I’m saying, me, but—
“Th, That’s right—Something happened!” As Naoto felt he was about to faint, he whipped himself back up.
It’s not like it really could have been a meteor, could it?
Fortunately, it seemed that only the living room had taken a direct hit. The workshop, which was in the back, might have still been fine.
“Ahh, God... shit, shit! Goddamn it!”
As Naoto screamed, he charged through the scene of destruction, whose air was still filled with fine particles.
“God... why did this have to happen?!”
With tears clinging to his eyes and snot dangling from his nose, Naoto moved the pieces of rubble blocking his way one by one.
“Haah, haah... Ow!” Blood was seeping out of the palm of his hand. Something must have cut it by some unlucky chance.
While he was pushing aside the rubble, the floor continued to creak. Looking up, he saw a chain of large holes opened up in the floors all the way from his own ceiling to the rooftop.
The floor of this room is still holding up for now, but who knows how long it’ll last... It seems like there’s no doubt that something fell from high in the sky, but—
“Was it seriously a meteorite...? What kinda crazy development is this don’t mess with me just what did I do to deserve this!”
As Naoto yelled, he wiped his forehead with his blood-stained hand.
Resuming his task, he thought, Just what could have caused this?
If this disaster was man-made, he would demand apologies and compensation from those responsible until they cried.
If it really was a meteorite... No, wait. I’ve heard that meteorites fetch a good price. If that’s the case, there’s a silver lining amidst this disaster after all. I might even be able to buy a new home and springs—
Something appeared underneath the rubble, causing Naoto to stay his hands.
“...What’s this?”
Naoto stared at the object, studying it.
A giant black box was buried in the rubble—It was a storage unit.
Based on the material it was made of and how it had been built, one could tell from a glance that it wasn’t just a regular steel case. Only the military or perhaps some research facility somewhere would use something like this. Whatever the case, the contents must have been fairly important.
“Well, it’s not a meteorite, but it should be something valuable... I think?”
When he looked closer, Naoto saw that the container’s frame was warped a great deal. As one would expect, it must have been unable to fully withstand the shock of the impact after falling from such a high altitude.
Naoto thought silently to himself for a short while before quickly reaching a conclusion.
“...Alright. I don’t know what’s inside, but if it’s valuable, I’ll be taking it as a consolatory settlement, so whoever’s responsible, you’d best prepare yourself.”
He squeezed himself through the crevice of the warped container and went inside. As he stepped onto the soft, cushioning material, Naoto continued to grumble.
“If it isn’t a real treasure, you really better prepare yourself. No matter what it takes, I’ll find out where this box came from and demand an apology and compensation. To that end, I’ll do whatever’s necessary, whether it be going to court or anything else—”
However...
As soon as Naoto saw the container’s contents, he stopped talking.
No, he didn’t just stop talking; he stopped breathing altogether. Even his heart might have stopped. It was that much of a shock.
The box was a coffin. At least, Naoto thought it was. An intricate glass coffin that reminded one of the moving parts of mechanical clocks which were made with incredible finesse.
Inside the coffin was a sleeping girl.
Screws, cylinders, wires, springs, gears—The girl was sleeping silently while covered by these mechanical burial flowers.
Looking to be in her mid-teens, she had smoothly flowing silver hair and a cherubic face. Her skin was coquettishly pale and her lips were red and moist. One could easily tell, even from above, that beneath her black, old-fashioned dress were long and slender limbs like those of a fleeting fairy.
Naoto was at a loss for words. It wasn’t just him; it was unlikely that any critic would have been able to open his mouth in front of her.
There was something “ultimate” here that instantly captured the heart of those who beheld it. The exceeding simple beauty and loveliness were such that one could hardly believe its artistry was something of this world.
...That’s right, its artistry. This was a clockwork doll, an automaton! Not just any, either, but the “ultimate” one...!
The moment he realized this, Naoto lost himself in ecstasy.
●
It was a “port.”
Underneath the deep-black sky, many enormous beams of steel were lined up. Together, they formed a “pier.”
Spreading out in the shape of a fan, the 3,500-meter runway was synchronized with the main gear of Osaka Grid, rotating in the opposite direction at exactly the same speed.
—Kansai International Airport.
It was an illustrious international airport that had first opened its doors before the planet was covered by gears.
Though it easily boasted a history of more than a thousand years, the architecture itself was new, as it had undergone a remodeling just a few years back. The sound of the gears cranking had a firm, clear quality to it as well.
In a corner of the airport that floated in the sky was what was called Corridor Seven—a runway closed to the public. There was a large transport aircraft parked there.
Work robots were going empty-handed into the opened hatch by the belly of the plane and coming out one after another carrying containers labeled with serial numbers while a large number of ground workers supervised them.
The containers were carried across the runway into the warehouse of Terminal Seven. There, they were transferred onto a truck and shuttled to the scene of the malfunction.
Or so they were supposed to be, but...
“It fell, you say?”
In the reception room of Terminal Seven, a young girl wearing a deep-blue shirt underneath a beige summer coat looked back over her shoulder, her head tilted to the side. The man who had been incessantly wiping sweat from his face felt his shoulders tremble.
“Umm, you see... there was a problem, and...”
“I can see that from looking at your face.”
The girl’s tone was cold. As she brushed the blond hair by her nape aside, she stared at the man with cutting eyes, urging him to go on. The man, on the other hand, was looking
down and was avoiding the girl’s stare.
His hunched posture sullied the dignity of both the title of chief of transport, which he had identified himself as, and the well-tailored suit he was wearing.
“You mentioned just now that one of the containers fell, but I’m having a little trouble understanding what the problem is.”
Was it a work robot malfunction or a human error? Whatever the case, it didn’t change the fact that the airport was responsible for the blunder. However, the containers were made to carry precision machines to begin with; thus, even if it fell while being unloaded, there shouldn’t have been a problem.
“Or are you saying that a worker was caught in the accident?”
“N, No, there’s no problem with the unloading. The rest of the containers should all be unloaded within an hour.”
Marie became increasingly confused.
Then just what is the problem?
The chief of transport put away his sweat-soaked handkerchief and looked at the young girl with a mortified face. “The accident in question didn’t occur after landing, but during flight.”
The girl continued staring at the chief of transport silently, not responding. He might have felt intimidated by her demeanor, for he displayed a frightened look towards the petite girl more than two decades younger than him as he painfully vomited out words. “Um, p... perhaps because the request was so sudden, um, an error was made in the loading, causing one of the containers to slip off the rails...”
“It was dropped from the plane during flight?”
“I, I’m terribly sorry... This is the first time that something like this has happened since the airport was founded, so um, it took time to confirm the situation, causing the report to come in late.”
“Which container was lost?” the girl questioned with a cold voice as sharp as a blade.
As if struggling to breathe, the chief answered, “...Container Y D-01.”
“——”
“I, I’m truly and terribly sorry for this!”
He lowered his head deeply, but the girl couldn’t be bothered to care.
“...In other words, this is what you’re saying, right?” The girl’s voice sounded like it was coming up from the depths of Hell. “So you’re saying that for some reason, during the emergency flight of a jumbo-sized transport aircraft loaded with precious personnel and materials, the hatch opened by itself while one of the 3,558 containers was carelessly left unlocked, and of all things, it just happened to be ‘that’ most precious and irreplaceable container?”
